Animals and Our Souls

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.

When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"

"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered.

"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked.

"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up." The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.

"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

"Excuse me!" he called to the man.

"Do you have any water?"

"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in."

"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog.

"There should be a bowl by the pump."

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.

The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, and then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.

"What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.

"This is Heaven," he answered.

"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too."

"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell."

"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"

"No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.

We are less than 5 years now from the great year of 2012. And many theories abound as to what will happen to humanity. But to me, I feel intuitively that we are at some very important crossroad event. Humanity stands at the threshold of leaving this planet and journeying into space. And with the present ecological disasters going on now on this planet, do we deserve to have another one?

http://www.anaflora.com/articles/inter-sharon/interv-fox.html
Matthew Fox, a spiritual theologian, has been an ordained priest since 1967.

I think animals have so much wisdom to teach us at this time. Its just the wisdom that we have been ignoring. We have a lot of knowledge, but we are low on wisdom. A shaman I met two years ago said to me "The four legged ones are very worried about us two legged ones, very worried. So much so that they are having many, many conferences about us and they have concluded that they have to do something to help us. One thing they are going to do is to appear more in our dreams. The other thing is just to make themselves more visible and play a bigger role even in our domestic lives."
It's the humans responding to the pain and the call of Gaia and the creatures that we better change our ways and wake up - get smart.

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3265151
June 11, 2007 For nearly two years, pet owners from the low-lying Louisiana parish of St. Bernard have accused sheriff's deputies of having wantonly killed dozens of dogs they forced evacuees to leave behind during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, without regard to the dogs' size or the potential threat they might pose. One owner said her family was forced at gunpoint to leave its dog behind. Another owner said residents became frantic when, they said, they overheard one deputy claim that "once everybody's gone, we're going to have target practice tonight." They claim in court papers that deputies were under " authorization...of their superiors and employers. (picture of Gigi at link) This white poodle, Gigi, was among the dogs allegedly killed by authorities after their owners were forcibly evacuated during Hurricane Katrina. A lawsuit says an animal rescue worker found Gigi shot in the head.
Reading this story I was so filled with anger and heartache for this cruelty. But we are being shown this for a reason, it makes you ashamed doesn't it. And the people who committed these cruel acts see this shame mirrored in eyes all across the globe. I feel great pity for them. They were called upon in a great time of need, and they were sworn to serve and protect. And they allowed the shadow to take hold of their hearts, and some of them may never return from the shadow, and will be lost forever.

A great dying of wild creatures and our beloved pets is being shown to the ones of us who are looking. And it is breaking our hearts and a great cry goes out. And souls are awakening in shame of what they suffer for us.

Animals’ spiritual awareness, sensitivity to energy fluctuations, and extent of emotions and intelligence have long been underestimated or completely disregarded by unfeeling humans, the most brutal killers on Earth. Among some animal species, usually those most commonly considered pets, are highly evolved souls who have chosen to experience in animal bodies, thus they have far more wisdom and spiritual clarity than many within our human population. These animals have come specifically to enhance our relationship with all animal life because this is vital to our individual journeys to evolve to the higher vibrations where cruelty in any form cannot exist. Without the awakening that has come to those who are dedicated to improving the lives of animals, as a species we will perish and become extinct like the dinosaurs.

And we will have deserved it, perhaps the dinosaurs did too.

The clock hands are ticking. Are you listening? Your heart is.